Electronic devices, appliances, toys, and the like, that have the ability to produce noises and sounds have become extremely popular in recent years with students, children, etc. In this regard, a number of devices have been developed that produce sounds (e.g., speak or talk) when a child pushes a button on the device, and/or flash or otherwise turn on one or more lights of the device. For example, after pushing the button, a given device produces a prerecorded sound in conjunction with blinking/flashing one or more colored lights.
A number of electronic devices exist to facilitate a learning and/or entertainment experience for a user (e.g., child). For example, a device, appliance, toy, or the like, might have a button with the letter “E” printed on it. After a child presses the letter “E”, the toy says the sound of the letter E (e.g., “eeee”). In one conventional electronic learning device, the device can respond to the user in a certain manner in order to reinforce a behavior (e.g., pressing letters in a certain manner, such as to spell a particular word).
Such toys could be improved. For example, over time, as a child grows up (e.g., from birth to 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc.) the child can become familiar with the responses from the toy. The child learns that by pushing on a certain part of the toy, the toy produces the same sound over and over again. The same set of buttons with the same corresponding set of sounds is always presented to the user. Consequently, learning and play can become predictable and repetitious. The child can lose interest in the toy and the educational and entertainment value of the toy to the child diminishes.
Another problem is the fact that the visual presentation of conventional toys become familiar to the child over time. A child becomes familiar with the look and feel of a toy. For example, a toy's look and feel encompasses its colors, the manner of its lights (e.g., flashing lights, blinking lights, etc.), its shapes and images, and the like. The child can become familiar with the look and feel of the toy, the manner of its behavior, and the way the child interacts with the toy. The child learns which interactive shapes or images produce which blinking/flashing lights and sounds. The same visual look is presented to the child, and consequently, over time the child looses interest in the toy.
Another problem with this type of toy is that the device typically includes subject matter having only a single level of intellectual difficulty. While a device having a single level of intellectual difficulty may be effective in maintaining the attention span of a child possessing a corresponding level of intelligence, it has been found that this type of device is not as effective in maintaining the attention span of children having higher or lower levels of cognitive development. For example, a child with a lower level of cognitive development than the intellectual level provided by a learning device of this type would become easily frustrated by the difficulty of the questions provided by the device. Likewise, a child having a higher level of cognitive development than the level provided by the device would become bored with the device because the questions are too easy. It would be desirable if an electronic toy had more functionality and more ways to stimulate and engage a child, both visually and audibly.